Government Investigates Amazon Over Sales Linked to Iran and One Person On Terror Black List

July 30, 2017

An Amazon worker gets ready to scan items before stowing them in a portable storage unit to be carried away by an Amazon Robotics robot at the Amazon fulfillment center in Tracy in April 2016. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)

Under federal investigation for possibly violating U.S. sanctions against Iran, Amazon has admitted to selling consumer goods to at least one person on the government’s black list of people and entities associated with terrorism.

In its quarterly financial report filed July 28, the Seattle e-commerce giant revealed that it had sold about $300 worth of consumer goods to someone designated under Executive Order 13224, which covers people and entities believed to be terrorists or supporters of terrorism. A February regulatory filing from Amazon noted another sale or group of sales to a person covered under that counter-terrorism order, amounting to $1,300. It was unclear whether that customer was the same as the person mentioned in the latest filing, or whether the person or people named in the executive order are linked to Iran.

Amazon’s July 28 filing outlines other, higher-value sales that may have violated the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act or other U.S. sanctions and export-control laws. The company said the Commerce and Treasury departments are investigating the Iran-linked sales and those to the person or people named in the executive order, and may impose penalties against the firm.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but said in its filings that it planned to “cooperate fully” with federal investigators.